


A Fool

by gnarf



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood, Explosions, Fluff, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Howlers (Harry Potter), M/M, POV Draco Malfoy, POV Harry Potter, Pining, Potions, Potions Accident, Running Away, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21552433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gnarf/pseuds/gnarf
Summary: When Slughorn blamed Draco for the explosion he had to leave before he'd do something stupid - like cursing Potter, or Slughorn.After Draco ran off, Harry tried everything to let him know how sorry he was. But the git ignored him no matter what.In the end someone else entirely had to take things in hands.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 40
Kudos: 482





	A Fool

**Author's Note:**

  * For [donnarafiki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/donnarafiki/gifts).



> !!! The 'Blood' warning is for a cut on Draco's hand. It happened through the exploding cauldron. I felt it necessary to tag that even if it's not in the centre of attention. !!!
> 
> This small fic was supposed to be a drabble for a conversation Donna and I had at the Drarry Discord. But as so often I got carried away. I hope you'll like it! 
> 
> Thank you orpheous87 for your brilliant and quick help with the beta 💜💜
> 
> I'm gifting this to Donna because this is absolutely hers :D  
> I hope you like it 💜

A massive explosion marked the end of the class. 

Draco had realised what was about to happen only seconds before it was too late. Throwing himself at Harry, he took him down with the force of his full bodyweight, before rolling them over and underneath the nearest table that shook as the cauldron exploded and sprayed its content and metal pieces all over the room. 

"Everyone alright?" Slughorn's panicked voice sounded through the mist the explosion had left behind. 

A quiet sound from underneath him made Draco look down. 

Potter looked at him, bewildered, and Draco had to hold himself back to not kill him and blame it on the explosion. 

"What have you done you stupid little—" A burn on his hand made Draco stop and look at it, only to find it all bloody. 

"Wrong ingredient, I knew it smelled funny but only realised when it was already too late. Sorry."

"Sorry?!? What the f—" 

"Harry! Are you alright my boy?" Slughorn had reached their shelter and Draco hurried to get up, throwing a foul look at Potter. 

"Yes, Sir. Draco pushed me under the table just before it happened."

"Well good nothing happened to you, my boy. We can't have you getting hurt in class, can we? Please go and see Madam Pomfrey nevertheless, just to be sure." Turning around to face the class, Slughorn seemed to become even larger in size. "Same goes for everyone else. If you feel strange, or have a cut due to the explosion please see yourself to the Hospital Wing."

Rolling his eyes, Draco started to gather his notes. He didn't expect for anyone to acknowledge his presence, especially not Slughorn. Nobody cared anyway. He could only hope that Madam Pomfrey would find the time to look at the cut on his hand. Stupid Potter and his usual incompetence. He knew it'd end that way as soon as they got partnered up. 

"What do you think you're doing, Mister Malfoy?" Slughorn's cool voice came from behind him, making him nearly snap his quill into two pieces from anger. 

"Gathering my notes before I visit the Hospital Wing, Sir."

"No. You'll help me clean up what your careless treatment and thereof exploding cauldron did to my classroom."

"Sir, it was actually my fault—" Potter started, but Slughorn only waved him off.

"Nonsense. You go, Harry. Mr Malfoy can take care of this on his own. Unless he doesn't know how to use his wand either."

"That's not what hap—" Potter tried again, but Draco had enough of it. His hand was burning like someone set it on fire and Potter hadn't even suffered a scratch only because he threw him under a table. And now he got the blame for Potter's stupidity. 

Turning on his heels, Draco left his notes and bag where they were and sprinted out of the classroom before he'd show Slughorn just how good he remembered to use a wand. 

* * *

Harry stared at Slughorn, not sure if he should punch him or not. 

Deciding it wouldn't be worth the trouble he picked up his bag before gathering Draco's stuff together and leaving the room without even looking at Slughorn once. 

It wasn't the first time Draco got treated badly, and it sure as hell wouldn't be the last. Harry was very sick of that and he couldn't start to imagine how bad it was for Draco himself. 

Coming to a halt in front of an ugly painting with a definitely plague riddled wizard taking a bath, Harry looked at Draco's bag in his hand. 

He had no idea where he could start to look for him. Harry was sure that Draco wouldn't go to the infirmary after what happened. But he needed treatment for his hand. 

Realising that he'd attempt to heal it on his own, Harry turned and hurried to get to his own dormitory and fetch the Marauders Map. 

* * *

Draco had managed to escape everyone for the entire day, something he was extraordinarily proud of, because escaping Potter wasn't easy. 

Especially not if the git tried everything to find him and was on his heels the entire day. 

No matter where he was, he could only hide for a few minutes until he heard Potter's significant stomping coming towards him. Not even his stupid invisibility cloak could help him with that. 

He only found his peace when he snuck out of the castle and found himself in the Forbidden Forest. 

Potter would never follow him there, not if what his mother had told him was true. 

The only thing Potter could do was run to one of the teachers and tell on him, but not even Potter would go that low. 

Remembering that Draco had actually done that same thing before, he couldn't help but laugh at himself. What a massive prat he had been. 

Finding a rock that was big enough to sit on, Draco inspected it thoroughly before sitting down. The last thing he needed was to go back to the castle looking like he'd fallen into a puddle of mud. 

He knew fleeing from everyone wasn't really mature of him. But he was so very sick of being the scapegoat for everything, especially for Potter related things. Things that seem to heap up over the last couple of months. 

Ever since Potter decided, for whatever reason, to team up with him at every opportunity, everything went downhill. At least most of the students and teachers had ignored him when he came back for their eighth year. But with Potter always around him, the spotlight had moved back to him, drawing attention at him that he really didn't want. 

Maybe that was Potter's plan all along. A very sick way to get back at him for all those years of constant fights. 

Deciding he wouldn't let this happen any longer, Draco huffed loudly and started to make a plan. 

* * *

Harry was at the brink of a nervous breakdown. It had been two weeks since the cauldron exploded. Two weeks where Draco hadn't even done as much as glance in his direction. 

The first day, he couldn't take Draco his bag back because Luna had caught him sneaking around Hogwarts and had trapped him in a very, very, long conversation. When he could finally look back onto the map to check for Draco, he was nowhere to be found. So he had asked one of the elves in the kitchen to take the bag to Draco's dormitory. 

The next day, their Professors refused to let them team up together. Draco didn't look up when Harry tried to protest, and he wasn't sure what he should think of it. 

Things were going pretty well before the accident, he even managed to get a few words out of him here and there. Once, Draco even nearly laughed as Harry made a stupid comment about something he had already forgotten again. 

He really had thought they'd get along well enough, even carefully thought about them as some sort of friends. 

But he was obviously wrong about that. 

He even went as far as to go back to Slughorn to tell him what really happened, and that Draco wasn't at fault for that explosion, effectively forcing him to apologise to Draco, even though half-heartedly. But nothing had helped. 

Staring at Draco, who still ignored him, Harry huffed loudly before looking back at his lunch that didn't look very appealing anymore. Not after he poked at it for fifteen minutes straight without eating any of it. 

"Would you please stop this sulking and tell us what's wrong?" Hermione asked exasperated. 

Huffing again, Harry put down his fork and looked back at Draco. 

"Oh, so it's still him? You know you could just go over and talk to him, right?" 

"No, Hermione, I can't. Because everytime I try, he vanishes. And if he can't just leave, he’ll sit there and pretend to neither see nor hear me no matter what I do and it's driving me insane!" 

"Have you tried to apologise?" 

"Of course I have! About fifteen times! He ignored me!" Harry hissed. 

"What's the matter with you and your newest obsession with the git anyways?" Ron asked between two bites. "It's not your standard ' _ he's up to something _ ', so must be something different this time. 

"I want to be friends with him, make things right now that everything is over. But—" 

"Be friends? Or bang him? Because, mate, I saw your looks. It's like Cho all over again, or Cedric for that matter. Sometimes we weren't sure at whom you were staring that year."

Harry felt his face burn and started to poke his food again. He didn't want to  _ bang  _ him. Jesus, the git  _ wasn't even talking  _ to him! So how—

"Yeah, we don't really need an answer for that one," Hermione piped in. "Have you tried sending him a letter?" 

Harry's face burnt even more as he looked at Draco once again. 

"Yeah." Was all he managed to say before Hermione and Ron sighed in unison. 

"He didn't read it?" Hermione asked. 

"He did. But proceeded to ignore me."

"Hi guys!" came Luna's dreamy voice from behind them. "Are you already discussing Draco?" 

Squeezing herself in the small spot next to Harry, Luna helped herself to a handful of vegetables before looking at them expectedly. 

"Yes, how did you know?" Ron asked stumped. 

"Oh, Harry's red face and constant gazes towards the Slytherin table were a dead giveaway. I'm only here to tell you that things will get better soon."

"How do you know that?" Harry asked, already afraid of her answer. Knowing Luna it could be either a totally clouded theory involving at least a dozen magical beasts, or a complete heroic catastrophe that not even the Obliviators could fix. 

"Oh, you'll know in a second. Look!" 

Looking up at where she pointed at, Harry found two owls flying into the Great Hall. One towards the Slytherin table and the other—towards them. 

Seeing what the owl carried, Harry's blood froze. The envelope was bright red, which could mean only one thing. 

The Howler was dropped onto the table in front of him. "No. No, no, no, no, no! Fuck!" 

Jumping up, Harry grabbed the letter and tried to run before it exploded. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Draco doing the exact same at the other side of the Great Hall. But they didn't get far. 

They had just met at the door when both of their letters started to smoke, and they had to drop them if they didn't want to burn their hands. 

It was the first time in weeks that Draco looked at him. And he carried the same look of horror on his face as Harry. 

The entire hall had gone silent, all waiting for the explosion that was deemed to happen. 

And when it did, both Harry and Draco nearly jumped into next week as a female voice erupted out of the burning envelopes. The screeching twice as loud as usual because the Howlers both carried the same text. 

_ YOU TWO ARE THE WORST MORONS WHO EVER ATTENDED THIS SCHOOL!  _

_ THERE HASN’T BEEN PINING LIKE THIS SINCE SALAZAR AND GODRIC THEMSELVES WANDERED THESE HALLS!  _

_ GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND SPARE US THE DRAMA!  _

_ LOVE,  _

_ YOUR FRIENDS AND THE ENTIRE REST OF HUMANITY  _

Harry didn't dare to look up. The entire hall was silent, the air thick enough to cut it. 

That was, until a voice from the Ravenclaw table sounded up. "Hear, hear!" 

All of a sudden the hall was filled with relieved sighs and laughter, some students even clapped or whistled, while Harry still stared at his feet unable to look anywhere else. 

"We should get out of here," Draco suddenly whispered. "It'll only get worse from this point on."

Nodding, Harry took the last few steps out of the Great Hall, Draco besides him. He wished for the ground to swallow him, he'd even take his invisibility cloak, just to get away as soon as possible. He was ready for the sprint for his life, but before he could run, off Draco grasped him by his wrist and pulled him into a secret passageway where he instantly pressed him against the wall inside.

"Was this another idea of yours to get my attention?" he hissed while Harry only stared at him. 

"No! I wouldn't send a Howler, especially not to myself!" 

"I'm going to kill Pansy."

"Was that—?" 

"Pansy's voice? Yes. That bitch. Never trust a Slytherin."

"Funny that you out of all people say that," Harry huffed. 

"I should know it best. You should remember that, Potter."

"What if it's too late for that warning?" Harry asked, heart beating in his throat. "What if I already trust a Slytherin? Like him, even."

Draco looked at him, eyes searching his face for what, Harry didn't know. "Then I'd call you a fool."

"I don't care," Harry breathed out. 

"You never care about anything, do you?" 

"I do. But not about what others might think about me, or my actions, in this case."

"Which case?" Draco asked, his face dangerously close. 

"This one." Taking all his courage together, Harry leaned forward and pressed his lips against Draco's.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I would love it if you leave a comment or kudos for my fic 💜
> 
> [Visit me on tumblr!](https://gnarf.tumblr.com/)


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